May the Spirit of God bless to us every syllable of this familiar Psalm as we read it!
Psalms 84:1-2. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Perhaps the psalmist would never have said, «How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!» if he had not been detained from them so long that he could truly say, «My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.» It is very sad, yet it is all too true, that we often need to be deprived of a mercy in order to be made to value it aright. Would it not be wiser, on our part, if we prized our privileges while they were yet spared to us? Still it is a good thing to have our love to the assemblies of God's house increased by temporary absence from them. See how fervent was the psalmist's desire. His longing turned even to fainting at the very thought that, perhaps, he would never go there again: «My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.» And his very «flesh» also joined in the intense longing of his soul. You cannot often get your flesh to do anything that is good, or to desire anything that is right; yet, sometimes, even our very body seems to be so swayed by the Holy Spirit that it is compelled to go it the right way.
Psalms 84:3. Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
The psalmist envies even the birds that twitter around the sanctuary, and wishes that he, too, had wings that he might fly to God's altar with them, and there take up his permanent abode.
Psalms 84:4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house:
The psalmist meant those priests who lived in the temple; and, in a spiritual sense, his words apply to those who dwell in God wherever they are, and who can truly sing,
«Where'er we dwell, we dwell in thee,
Or on the land or on the sea.»
«Blessed are they that dwell in thy house;»
Psalms 84:4. They will be still praising thee. Selah.
Constant communion leads to constant adoration.
Psalms 84:5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee;
Who throws his whole soul into the worship; not such as come up to the house of God, and leave their hearts at home: «Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee;
Psalms 84:5-6. In whose heart are the ways of them. (Or, better, «are thy ways.») Who passing through the valley of Baca (or, «Weeping») make it a well;
Finding solace in their suffering, sanctification in their affliction.
Psalms 84:6-7. The rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
Blessed are the pilgrims who are journeying to the upper Zion, the Jerusalem which is above, the mother of all the saints. The margin renders it, «They go from company to company;» or it may mean, «They go from strength of faith to greater strength,» and so they pass on, «Till each appears in heaven at length.»
Psalms 84:8. O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
«Thou art a prayer-hearing God. Didst thou not hear Jacob at the brook Jabbok? Then, O God of Jacob, give ear also to me! If I have not yet come to be like prevailing Israel, I am like wrestling Jacob; so, give ear to me, as thou didst to Jacob.»
Psalms 84:9. Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
We hold up Christ before his Father, and say to him,
«Him, and then the sinner see;
Look through Jesus' wounds on me.»
Psalms 84:10. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.
He means, of course, better than a thousand spent anywhere else.
Psalms 84:10. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
«I had rather dust the mats in thy house than sit on Satan's throne; I had rather wash the feet of thy saints, or perform any menial duties for them, than rule over all the hosts in the realms of darkness.»
Psalms 84:11-12. For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
He will never walk uprightly unless he does trust in the Lord, neither will he receive the fullness of the blessing except as he learns to trust to the full, for the Master still saith, «According to thy faith, be it unto thee.»